FOREIGN TOURING NEW ZEALAND HERE CAN be few motor caravanners with a wanderlust who T haven’t considered a trip around the stunning landscape of New Zealand. Sadly, ‘The Shaky Isles’ have had a tough 12 months but I’m pleased to report that NZ is recovering and open for business. This is a country that rivals France in terms of being campervan friendly – as long as you’re not in a hurry. The roads are good NEW but winding, sometimes steep and often narrow. Motorways as we know them are virtually non-existent, but so are traffic jams. Buy the excellent Hema series of maps, BOUNDARIES preferably before you go, and you will find more than 1,200 motorhome parks clearly Beautiful South: Lake Hawea Martin Salter embarks on an epic tour of one marked along with every emptying point of the most beautiful countries on the planet and major tourist attraction. Alternatively also home to the amazing Driving Creek blazing sunshine, was simply awe-inspiring. DID YOU 2 you can head for one of the 200 or so Railway built by local potter Barry Brickell. We drove through the dramatic Haast Pass KNOW? 2 ) camping grounds managed by the The views across the Hauraki Gulf from and camped on the shores of Lake Wanaka New Zealand covers an area(the of 268,021km UK covers Department of Conservation (DOC). the ‘Eyefull Tower’ at the top of the track on the basic but beautiful campsite at 243,610km These range from serviced sites to little are simply stunning, as was the food at the Boundary Creek, before exploring the lakes more than a place to park by a stream. quirky Driving Creek Café nearby. and rivers of Mount Aspiring National Park There are dozens of hire companies We were loving the coastline and didn’t and Mount Cook. to suit every taste and pocket but you feel ready to head inland, so we opted to My advice is not to leave it too long. All could also consider a motor caravan swap give the sulphur springs of Rotorua a miss over this amazing landscape there are scenes with a Kiwi who is looking to tour Europe and follow the Pacific Coastal Highway just waiting to take your breath away. n or the UK. This can be arranged by right round the East Cape to Napier. placing an advertisement on the website First stop was the aptly-named Bay of of the excellent Motor Caravan Plenty where fruit farms, trout streams and Association of New Zealand. surf beaches sit beside sleepy villages and We flew into Auckland and were pleased bustling towns such as Whakatane and to find that the Maui hire depot was a short Tauranga. Some 30 miles out into the bay, cab ride away. Within an hour or so we had the active volcano of White Island puffs been fully briefed and were driving north in away like a lazy steam train, while divers, our four-berth Platinum Beach VW camper anglers and walkers take charter boat trips along State Highway 1, heading for the Bay to explore its waters or clamber on its rocks. of Islands. This is the ‘must-see’ spot in Most travellers turn south at Opotiki so New Zealand’s Northland (on the tip of the the road became even quieter as we headed Looking out over Otautu Bay country’s North Island). east into a largely uninhabited land. The The main town in the bay is Paihia, hundred or so miles that the highway INFORMATION situated across the river from the famous hugged a coastline of crumbling cliffs, Waitangi Treaty Grounds, the birthplace of shimmering water and timeless, SITES the modern nation where in 1840 the driftwood-strewn beaches is up there with Some sites to consider: British secured the agreement of the Maori some of the most scenic drives of my life. n Anglers Lodge, 1446 Colville Road, Amodeo Bay, chiefs to govern New Zealand at the After admiring Napier’s architecture, it Coromandel. Call 0064 7 866 8584 or see anglers.co.nz n Bowentown Beach Holiday Park, 510 Seaforth Road, Waihi expense of the French. The grounds look was down to the capital, Wellington, and a Beach 3642, Bay of Plenty. Call 0064 7 863 5381 or see out onto the myriad of islands that dot the trip around the impressive Te Papa museum bowentown.co.nz bay, and after a trip round the Treaty before catching the ferry across the Cook n Lake Outlet Holiday Park, 197 Outlet Road, Lake Wanaka. House, visitor centre and Maori Meeting Straits to the South Island, via the dramatic Call 0064 3 443 7478 or see lakeoutlet.co.nz House we better understood how it was gateway of the Marlborough Sounds. n Lake Tekapo Holiday Park, Lakeside Drive, Lake that these two nations came to find peace. We headed for Abel Tasman National Tekapo, South Canterbury. Call 0064 3 680 6825 or see laketekapo-accommodation.co.nz Situated to the far north-east of the Park and beyond arty Nelson everything Bay of Islands is Cape Brett and the ramps up a notch or two. The mountains are MOTOR CARAVANS famous ‘Hole in the Rock’. The half-day taller, the forests thicker, the rivers wider, n Campervan hire and car rental: Maui. Call 00800 2008 0801 boat cruise across the bay was sheer deeper and faster and the sea angrier as it or see maui.co.nz pleasure, with the option of swimming pounds against the west coast. The drive n Swap: The New Zealand Motor Caravan Association. See with dolphins or stopping for tea and cake south from Westport past the crashing nzmca.org.nz to see the latest adverts or place your own. Temporary membership of the association is available to at Zane Grey’s old fishing camp on the blowholes at Pancake Rocks is reckoned by Caravan Club members at a discounted rate and can save lovely Urupukapuka island. Lonely Planet readers to be in the top 10 in you hard-earned dollars on ferry crossings as well as provide If the South Island is all about crystal the world, and I wouldn’t argue. access to 16 low-cost campgrounds plus a network of free lakes and towering mountains, the North Eventually, under the shadow of the park-over sites. has to be about rugged coastlines, deserted Southern Alps, we came to the Franz Josef beaches and sunshine, and there are few and Fox glaciers. The air buzzed with CLUB TOURS n more lovely spots than the Coromandel helicopters ferrying excited visitors up the The Caravan Club runs several motor caravan tours to New Zealand in conjunction with our partners Off The Beat Travel. The North Island’s peninsula to the west of Auckland. mountain and onto the snowfields. Walking For further details of these tours and other worldwide beautiful Bay of Plenty Featuring forest-covered mountains, on what felt like the top of the world, above holiday destinations, please see p62 of this issue. sheltered coves and natural harbours, it is the clouds and among those craggy peaks in 106 The Caravan Club Magazine August 2011 The Caravan Club Magazine 107.